Fury and Revenge in Cape Town: In the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town, #1

By SHADLEY FATAAR

In Fury and Revenge in Cape Town Dr Stanley Gershon is a dedicated embattled GP working in a Cape Town township shanty housing complex on the Cape Flats, long regarded as apartheid's dumping ground in the Mother City. He is beset by the poverty-related triad of diseases, crime and violence. Together with his close friend Jim Davids, his girlfriend Fay Ismail and Detective Adams and his activist university student daughter Lydiah, all the characters become embroiled in the political and police violence immediately following the 1976 massacre of over 60 school children in Soweto. They also become embroiled in a series of vicious attacks on township paedophiles in the already tense slum township where nationwide student-driven insurrection is in full swing to topple apartheid. All the action takes place in the shadow of the emblematic Table Mountain in the fairest Cape in the world.

(67,000 words)

 

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: SHADLEY FATAAR
• Release date: Jul 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645824612

Book preview

FURY and REVENGE in CAPE TOWN

SHADLEY FATAAR

Book 1 of the Trilogy, In the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town

Published by SHADLEY FATAAR, 2023.

WHO IS SHADLEY FATAAR?

A close-up of a person wearing sunglasses Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Shadley is a semi-retired radiologist who grew up under the yoke of apartheid rule in Cape Town, South Africa. Apartheid was widely regarded as social engineering gone wrong.

His politically formative teens started in 1960 when police shot and killed more than sixty peaceful anti-pass protesters in Sharpeville.

His alma mater, Livingstone High School, in Claremont, was a hive of activist anti-apartheid resistance. It was a school with the highest number of teachers imprisoned, banned and exiled, including his father, Alie Fataar.

In the early 1970s, Shadley worked as a medical officer in Zululand's Ceza Mission Hospital, then as a GP in a Black township in Cape Town, followed by his time as a radiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital. These professional years coincided with nationwide, escalating student insurrection, and police brutality, including the 1976 massacre of more than a hundred demonstrating students in Soweto in the country’s north.

His personal and professional experiences were a rich source of material for his socio-political and historical trilogy of thrillers, In the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town. The opus covers the epochal years from Sharpeville in 1960 to the collapse of apartheid in 1994.

Book 1, Fury and Revenge in Cape Town, covers the dramatic period in 1976 which marked the beginning of the South African student-led revolution on the Cape Flats, apartheid's dumping ground in the Mother City.

AWAITING THE LIGHT of another day for publication in the near future is the rest of the trilogy:

Book 2: Toyi-toyi, Cape Town’s War Dance.

Book 3: Cape Town’s Necklaces of Fire.

SHADLEY BLOGS AT shadleyfataar.com - Living with apartheid in the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT BOOK 1

In Fury and Revenge in Cape Town , Fataar gives us a terrific crime novel while he takes his readers on a gritty, no-holds-barred ride through the streets of Cape Town during the student uprising in 1976. His characters and settings create an intense, confronting story where the line between good and evil becomes blurred. Personal strife, communal hardship and a country torn apart by apartheid form an intriguing landscape. Throw into the mix a dedicated vigilante, a charismatic doctor and a determined detective, and you have an insightful glimpse into a volatile Cape Town as world-changing events unfold.

Rosalie Skinner, author of the eight-book science fiction and fantasy series, The Chronicles of Caleath.

A GRIPPING NOVEL WITH not only mystery at its core, but also lived experience of institutionalised racial segregation in South Africa. The real-life issues of apartheid are brought into focus through the story of a committed local doctor and his role in the violent events that unfold in his fractured community. Shadley Fataar has first-hand knowledge and experience of practising medicine in this troubled, dangerous environment and uses his considerable story-telling skills to weave an unforgettable novel.

Leonie Henschke, Author and former Managing Editor, Angus and Robertson Publishers, Australia & UK.

FATAAR'S NOVEL DESCRIBES in consummate detail the day-to-day experiences of people living through a time of significant social change. Located in apartheid South Africa, his characters reflect the trauma of living under an oppressive system and the heroism associated with opposition thereto. Readers will find the story entertaining, suspenseful and informative, and I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Professor William Pick, Professor Emeritus and former Head of the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand; Honorary Professor at University of Cape Town. Author of The Slave has Overcome and Ten turbulent years.

IN SOUTH AFRICA DURING the Apartheid years, brutality was enforced, hate encouraged, and violence applauded. Fataar's Fury and Revenge in Cape Town gives voice to the trauma experienced by so many, and the effects apartheid had (and still has) on that society.

Marion van Dyk, author of the memoir, Under the Skin.

COPYRIGHT © S FATAAR 2022

All rights to the trilogy are reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and specific other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.   

FOR PERMISSION REQUESTS, contact the author.

Address:

PO Box 6145, Coffs Harbour Plaza, NSW 2450, Australia.

Email: [e-mail]

Mobile Phone/Whatsapp: [phone]

WEBSITE: shadleyfataar.com Living with Apartheid in the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town. 

COVER DESIGN BY PENNY Clemens of Rustum Fataar’s Minuteman Press, Ontario, Canada.

THE COVER AND LOGO show Devil’s Peak, Table Mountain and Lion’s Head as viewed from Signal Hill.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Top of the list is my wife, soulmate and closest friend Zonjia Fataar (nee Arnold), whose encouragement propelled me along over the last nine years of writing.

For my mentoring and early editing, I thank author, Margaret Penhall-Jones.

The late Pat Rule provided useful archival research in Cape Town, besides being a close friend with his wife, Des. 

Early inputs came from Geoffrey Cox and Caroline List in New Zealand; also, Geoff Louw for his conducted tour around the University of the Western Cape campus in 2016.

Marion van Dyck, author of Under the Skin, provided the stimulus to start my book-writing; also, Professor Willy Pick, colleague and author of The Slave has Overcome; Beryl Crosher-Segers, author of a Darker Shade of Pale, and Maruwan Gasant, author of Night of the Dogs.

The Coffs Harbour Writer’s Group offered regular encouragement, especially Leonie Henschke and Rosemary Skinner, author of the series Chronicles of Caleath.

It was good to see a trial print of my book by my brother, Rustum Fataar’s Minuteman Press (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada), with the cover design by their graphics designer, Penny Clemens.

My main editor, Laurel Cohn, was invaluable. 

My agent, Michael Cybulski of NAC, showed much faith in my work. With his pet hates removed, and with his team of Sue Anderson and Noelene Brasche, the book is in a better shape. 

Neill Freeman and Jutta Fahr gifted me an invaluable and most informative timeline resource for all three books – the Illustrated History of South Africa, edited by Dougie Oakes.

My son, IT specialist Sohrab Fataar from Pi Squard, deserves special mention for setting up my stunning website assisted by Scott Willhite.

The last proofreading by Nasreen Varyawa provided a critical polish to Book 1 of my trilogy.

My book-writing is the sum of many parts, and I have many people to thank. No doubt more names could be added as omissions and oversights are possible.

DEDICATION

In the early spring of 1976, twelve-year-old Sandra Peters died from a police shotgun blast to her head sustained during the height of anti-state demonstrations in Athlone township. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records of 1998, she was on her way to buy a loaf of bread.

My book is dedicated to Sandra and the many children and adults who died during anti-establishment protests preceding the 1994 collapse of apartheid in South Africa. 

'THERE CAN BE NO KEENER revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.’

Nelson Mandela, Pretoria, South Africa. May 1995.

PROCEEDS FROM BOOK sales will go towards student scholarship funding in South Africa.

FROM THE AUTHOR: THE SEMANTICS OF COLOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA

The issues of human segregation are a distorted reality of colour, race, religion, wealth and other diverse means. Apartheid South Africa flaunted a racist disconnect in the face of near-universal condemnation.  

The original lines were clear. European or Non-European were simple distinctions between the conquerors and the conquered. In South Africa, as in other parts of the colonised world, colour differentiation became the prime qualifier.

Later, Whites or Non-Whites Only signs replaced the Europeans or Non-Europeans Only separatist graffiti around the country's public spaces.

The State promoted Non-White subdivisions into Bantu, Coloured and Indians with a small Chinese population; the latter became 'honorary Whites' following the establishment of political ties with Taiwan.

The oppressed majority embraced 1960s Black Consciousness. Black was a sociopolitical banner used by Africans, as did many of those classified as Coloured or Indian.

A few liberal Whites referred to people as Black or Non-Black. The quaint, pendular swing in terminology was not popular; likewise, the term ‘Colourdians', sometimes used in Cape Town. 'So-called Coloured', more commonly used, was more acceptable.

Divide and rule was the State's aim, whereas Black unity provided a solution, a concept promoted by Steve Biko, the Black Conscious Movement leader killed during his police detention in 1977. 

Apartheid’s vilified ideology distorted our perceptions of each other in a fragmented nation. In the process, it blighted our lives with an excess proliferation of segregationist and oppressive laws.

Like the author, the more politically inclined rejected all classifications; Homo sapiens is the only acceptable term for all people.

However, in writing this trilogy, one could not avoid the colour issue; it formed the basis of centuries of segregation and decadesof striving towards liberation.

The author uses capitals to describe Blacks or Whites as we do with nationalities, e.g., British, Chinese, etc.

WHEN A JUDGE ASKED Steve Biko, Why do you call yourself Black when you are brown?

Biko replied, Why do you call yourself White when you are pink? In a nutshell, Biko’s riposte highlighted the absurdity of the South African colour issue.

Timeline of events of the trilogy, In the Shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town.

1960 -1976

MARCH 1960: THE SHARPEVILLE and Langa massacres of 60 or more people who protested against the Pass Laws restricting domicile and work opportunities for the indigenous Africans.

June 1976: Soweto massacre of dozens of protesting students; followed by hundreds more in the ensuing months of student protests around the country. The nation’s cemeteries become police killing fields.

Book 1, Fury and revenge in Cape Town, covers the months of August and September 1976.

1985-1986

When the toyi-toyi establishes itself as a protest dance during this period, there is another peak in police-related violent deaths in South Africa.

August 1985. The Release Mandela Pollsmoor march cost over 30 lives in Cape Town, with more deaths countrywide.

October 1985. The Trojan Horse massacre took three protesting student’s lives during an ambush in which police with shotguns hid in wooden crates on the back of a truck. (The event, filmed by the American CBS TV network, attracted international condemnation.)

March 1986. The Gugulethu 7 massacre involved a planned police ambush using turned ANC (African National Congress) fighters to set up seven youngsters.

May and June 1986. The Crossroads and KTC Fires of 1986 in which at least 30 people died, with 60,000 rendered homeless. Government-supported Witdoek (White cloth) forces laid waste to informal shanty housing in the two townships.

Book 2, Toyi-toyi, Cape Town’s War Dance, includes these worst civil violent episodes in Cape Town’s latter-day history.

1990-1994

Feb 1990.  Mandela’s release after 27 years of imprisonment.

Especially in the north of the country, these were the most violent years with most of the fatalities attributed to heightened police activity before South Africa’s first democratic elections. There was also an increase in extremist right-wing, security police death squad activities in which hundreds died around the country from assassinations, random shootings and targeted attacks on ANC and UDF (United Democratic Front) activists.

Cape Town had to go through its own trauma including the actions of the secretive, police Balaclava Gang which created havoc in the African townships. It contributed to the existing mayhem between the ANC and Witdoeke, including the Taxi Wars, and the abhorrent practice of necklacing using fuel-driven, burning tyres placed around opposition members’ necks.

26.4.1994 The day of South Africa’s first ever democratic elections.

Book 3, Cape Town’s Necklaces of Fire, incorporates these calamitous developments from Namibia to the Mother City.

CONTENTS  

Chapter 1  Township villain.

Chapter 2  Township doctor.

Chapter 3  Bush mission.   

Chapter 4  Township detective.    

Chapter 5  General Practice highs and lows.    

Chapter 6  Bush surgery aftermath.    

Chapter 7  University student.    

Chapter 8  Cape Town ramps up.    

Chapter 9  Religious subterfuge.   

Chapter 10  The priest in church.   

Chapter 11  Adams goes to church.      

Chapter 12  Jim at the church. 

Chapter 13  Student activism.

Chapter 14  Physician heal thyself.  

Chapter 15  New patient reconnaissance.   

Chapter 16  The conflict escalates.  

Chapter 17  Unscheduled surgery.

Chapter 18  Schoolgirl trauma.  

Chapter 19  Shooting aftermath.  

Chapter 20  Funeral violence. 

Chapter 21  Time out.

Chapter 22  Day of calm.  

Chapter 23  Serendipitous surgery. 

Chapter 24  Mother's Little Helper.  

Chapter 25  Adams on the move.   

Chapter 26  More practice concerns. 

Chapter 27  Up the mountain.  

Chapter 28  Coroner's report.  

Chapter 29  Semi-final rugby match. 

Chapter 30  The game picks up.

Chapter 31  Bush showdown.

Chapter 32  Countdown.

Chapter 33  The final draw.  

CHAPTER 1   TOWNSHIP VILLAIN

He was ready to perform essential surgery on another patient. With his head turned sideways, he looked at himself in the cupboard door mirror with an oblique crack across the middle. Grim satisfaction followed the quick draw of his knives from each back pocket. Slick action resulted from years of practice before the mirror most mornings. Both hands were skilled in the knife opening manoeuvre, though the left was slicker than the right. A satisfied smile looked back at him from the mirror. 

He closed each knife, so that their blade tips rested on top of the folded wire bail before he slipped one into each back pocket with their tips facing outwards and downwards, ready for action. When removing the knife from his pocket, he hooked the exposed blade on his jeans to open the weapon in one movement. In his early teens, he had learned the knife opening technique from neighbourhood skollies (gangsters) who relied on their knives as their primary weapons.

Now his operating theatre in the Bush beckoned. His main worry was the early August, wintery weather, but first, he had to deal with a customer at the back door. With impatience he handed over the zol of dagga to the man who pocketed the roll of cannabis wrapped in foil. He did not need this distraction because he would rather be amongst the Port Jackson wattle bushes close to home.  

How are you? His customer asked.  

Nah, I'm okay. Keeping my nose clean, looking after my customers, and avoiding the police. He smirked. How about you? He regretted asking the reflex question. He would be too late to operate once the sun set.

Same my side, said the man. I avoid trouble these days; there's enough police around stirring up shit. Those bloody school kids reckon they know everything. What did we achieve in 1960 after Sharpeville? Sixteen years later, we have even fewer rights.

He hardly heard his customer. "You're right. Anyway bro, stay lekker (well)." He slammed the door closed.

Others had tried to involve him, though he had no interest in the turmoil bubbling in the north of the country. The riots in Soweto were too far away to be of any concern to him. The constant increase in the undercurrent of tension in Cape Town did not mean much to a man who led a life with few obligations. These were not issues of his making. He distanced himself from the student unrest even though his first-hand experience of South Africa's depravity was his daily lot. After all, he had dark skin, tight curly hair, and he was poor. 

To be oppressed by Whites was awful enough. His Coloured people further edged him out. Now they wanted him to join their fight. To him, the groundswell of township tumult was a middle or upper-class issue. His primary interest focused on a select few, fueled by a lifetime of smouldering rage. His preoccupation was always on the next case. Nothing else drives me, not this political crap.

He stole another quick look at himself in the mirror. Enough women had told him he was handsome, although he was not keen on his oversized ears. Nor was he happy about his forehead’s prominence, a sure sign he would follow his father towards baldness. His expanding forehead was pimply; he occasionally shaved his sparse facial hair. The curly hair was much shorter than the 1960s Afro hairstyle he had sported from the time of his expulsion from senior school for dealing in dagga(cannabis).

His dark skin colour was a tribute to his paternal slave ancestry. The well-muscled frame with minimal fat was the body of an athlete. His facial skin was smooth, with a childhood cheek scar in the position of a dimple, adding more interest to his angular face and square jaw. A full-lipped smile revealed his even teeth and twinkling deep brown eyes.

Clothing was limited to black Wrangler jeans and matching tee-shirts with a range of shades determined by their age. Flared trousers were not his style. A leather belt, with a simple stainless-steel buckle, was a treasured item given to him years ago by a close friend.

He had no memories of his mother, who had run off with another man soon after his birth. He was raised by his tyrannical paternal grandmother, who had not spared him the rod, even with minor transgressions. His punishments were severe, adding to his dark thoughts. A rare paternal hug was the closest thing to affection he ever had during his childhood.

For all his 29 years in Elsies River, he had lived in Fourth Avenue which had both informal shanty housing and upmarket ownership homes. His room was at the front of the two-bedroom house that he shared with his father. The family home was one of many well-constructed corrugated iron houses bordering on the vast area known as die Boer se Bos. No one knew who owned the kilometre-wide Farmer's Bush. The growth, between the railway line and the backyards of their houses, extended between the two neighbouring stations. As a child, he learnt to navigate his way around the Bush’s narrow sandy tracks, linking the township with the train stations. 

The extensive tract of land was covered with Port Jackson wattle bushes with a scattering of pine trees. At school, he learnt how the Australian plant was a noxious weed brought in over a hundred years ago to control the Cape Flats dunes. The bushes had taken over vast tracts of the Flats at the expense of the natural fynbos (fine bush). The dense greenery provided him with the cover suited to the surgery he conducted in the thickest central part where the wattle grew to a height of four metres.  

His two dogs greeted him when he let himself through the door. Rover and Bonzo were black mongrels with tan foreheads, almost mirror images of each other. They shared a kennel he had fashioned from a wooden packing crate with rusted, corrugated, iron sheeting held in place as a roof with an assortment of bricks. A couple of hessian bags provided the dogs with much-needed winter warmth while a brick at each corner held their kennel off the wet ground. 

The curs doted on him. You guys are the greatest. He rubbed their ears while they competed to lick a bit of his skin. He had found them as puppies in the Bush when he had brought them home because they reminded him of his life without a mother. All houses in the area had one or more dogs, with pedigreed German Shepherds being more popular at the classy northern end of their street, where all the homes had burglar bars.  

The mongrels followed him across the backyard when he threaded his way around pools of water scattered between a mix of weed and Kikuyu grass controlled by roaming fowls. A gap in the rusted corrugated iron fence served as the rear entrance to their property. He stepped over the knee-high bottom strip of iron to head to the Bush